Posted on 04/18/2016 1:06:28 PM PDT by pabianice
A World War Two seaplane has been left abandoned and stranded for a while on a beach off the north Gulf Coast of the US. It the subsequent “recovery operation” the Catalina broke apart and has been destroyed.
The plane is a PBY-6A seaplane that was built and used during the war. The plane was being used in a new Hollywood movie starring Nicholas Cage, but during filming a minor flying complication occurred and the pilot had to do an emergency landing off the Florida shore line.
The plane landed close to the shore near the Alabama and Florida state border, and close enough to the beach that swimmers and surfers can take a look at the aircraft.
The plane was anchored to the shallow shore but has become flooded with water.
You can see some video of the airplane as salvage crews “attempted to save it” in the link below that was shot by local news station Fox 10. The aircraft was apparently restored specifically for the upcoming Nicholas Cage movie USS Indianapolis: Men of Honor.
Click here to see the video
Men of Honor
The PBY-6A is a twin engine seaplane built in 1945 and was being used to film a new movie about the war time disaster aboard the US Navy’s USS Indianapolis.
The USS Indianapolis was a Portland heavy cruiser and was named after the US city of Indianapolis in Indiana. She served in the Pacific during World War Two leading the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The ship had served throughout the US involvement in the Pacific. It was July 1945 and the war in Europe was at an end, after Hitler committed suicide at the end of April that year and German army commanders signed the official surrender to Allied forces. But over in the Pacific the Japanese held on to their positions and continued to fight the US troops.
As the USS Indianapolis made its way back to base, a Japanese Navy submarine, an I-58, located it and fired a torpedo that would sink the ship within just 15 minutes. Around a third of the almost 1200 crew went down with the ship. The remaining crew were stranded in the vicious waters of the Pacific, The Telegraph reports.
The disaster was only discovered by US authorities four days after the incident and so most of the crew perished. Only around 320 crew survived.
What a bummer. My great uncle flew them during WWII doing sub patrols off the East Coast.
What a shame to see that happen
CUT!! Get me Re-Write!!!
Cage movies can be very costly to make.
Just watched Con Air take the Vegas strip out.
GOD bless those lost that fateful day in the Pacific.
Destroyed??? Hardly. I’ve seen far worse wrecks restored to better than new condition.
We had 2 of those here at KWHP a few years back, they were being restored, and they flew regularly. I would bet this is one of them.
This was no boating accident!
http://www.pnj.com/story/news/military/2015/07/01/wwii-seaplane-beached-behind-flora-bama/29575781/
this happened last year
Im not gonna have that kitner boy spill out all over the dock
“This happened in June of 2015, and the airplane was successfully recovered.”
Not.
What was that kitner boy doing in a ppy ?
Yeah, your photo shows a less than successful recovery.
Pffft... that’ll buff right out.
These are beautiful planes....and the cars with the same name are awesome also.
My dad is a tv repairman...he has a totally awesome set of tools....I can fix it.
FUBAR. The two photos do not look like the same aircraft.
...lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eye.
Half-ass autopsy on fish
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.